Deemed contract terms

Cardew

Ken68 wrote: »

A million was guess, Cardew, tho I thought the figure was in a post.

Ken,
I guessed at a million changes of occupancy per year in a post. I wasn't quering your figure; I just didn't want somebody disputing the million figure.

Deemed contracts are not confined to gas and electricity supply. There are deemed contracts in employment law and other fields.

Terrylw1

Hi Ken - I reckon by posting on here we hold a "deemed contract" with Legaleagle for a response now ;-)

You couldn't do much with the property owner except send them a nice letter really since it's the tenants who are liable unless there is a tenancy agreement in place including utilities as in Legaleagle's client in the first post. Courts sign off warrants in these circumstances so someone who knows the law is looking at them.

Hi Cardew - thats very true, if your employer changes your T&C's in a contract and you don't agree to it yet receive payment, your contract becomes legal because you have to leave to prevent it being enforced. Been there myself a couple of years ago. Don't know whether thats still the case now.

It's certainly likely that you would be talking thousands of change of tenancies every month. PP customers tend to move in and out more than most. I wonder how Legaleagle would apply his/her deemed whinge to PP meters since you gotta put in to get out!!! Another part of the argument not considered eh? Maybe we'll get a post stating PP meters are illegal or against our human rights next?

There was some talk a few years back of introducing new meters that could be controlled remotely (more advanced than the current remote telemeters) that would allow readings to be taken over the wire. I guess you could flash up a message to say "contact us now or we cut you off tomorrow!" I don't think those technologic wonders will get in for a longtime considering the extra unemployment they would cause...

Regards

SwanJon

I've seen that around 10% of our customers move every year, although this probably includes people who move twice twice (does that make sense?)
By my last calculations there are over 27 million electricity supply points and 20 million gas supply points.
This makes about 4.7 million each year, close to 13 000 each day.
OK, I'm sad and like maths.
Onto the meters, I've heard talk of ones that send in readings by text message. Can't wait - imagine waht can go wrong.

Terrylw1

Hi SwanJon, I read about the new wave years ago but it never said how it would be achieved. Texts sound very cool. I can just see all those company directors rubbing their hands thinking about adding a text message charge onto their bills!!!

TSB have just introduced a service to text you when you go in the red. It's £2.50 per month so even if it were based on consumer charges you would need to go in the red at least 25 times a month to warrant it.

Commercial texting is bound to be very cheap so I wonder how they will inflate the texts! Would be very interesting since properties may be vacant.

I'm sure we can look forward to such future posts about dodgy text charges!!!

I think one of the debates raging years ago was about giving Suppliers additional control of the meters remotely. Can you imagine all the smeg ups then? I remember how customers were getting cut off in error on the Smartpower cards.

Regards

Cardew

SwanJon wrote: »

I've seen that around 10% of our customers move every year, although this probably includes people who move twice twice (does that make sense?)
By my last calculations there are over 27 million electricity supply points and 20 million gas supply points.
This makes about 4.7 million each year, close to 13 000 each day.
OK, I'm sad and like maths.

'10% of customers move every year' is not the same as 10% of customers moving property; and the dreaded deemed contract only comes into force when a customer moves to a new property. i.e. I could remain in my property and change supplier 8 times a year(and get 8 bottles of champagne!!) and not ever have a deemed contract.

SwanJon

I'm not sure it's actually that far out.
For 10% of customers to move each year, the average tenancy would need to be 10 years.
I know loads of people will stay longer, especially once they have bought somewhere, but think of how many short tenacies there are with people moving every year (I'm guilty - 7 times in the last 10 years) and how these will affect the average.

All this does is prove howe many deemed contracts there are each year - say 1 million at the low end and 4.5 at the high end, it's still a lot of work for the lawyers!

legaleagle_2

For respondents who wish some clarification over matters of deemed contract, I have continued my comments in the thread "Bills addressed to the Occupier".

Terrylw1

Nope you haven't.

We are the same people commenting in that thread which you have not commented on for a while. We would be interested to hear what you think though.

Besides, your example with the tenant in this thread isn't even relating to your deemed contract issue so you could address that in this one, couldn't you?

legaleagle_2

JackieWood, your situation sounds like a case of deception. You ought to visit a solicitor. I can't give legal help on this forum because it is against the rules. If a person wishes to contact me privately then I may be able to help frame the matter correctly. Nonetheless, the proper resolution of your matter will require that you are very clear of the facts of how this occured, and that you have all your paperwork. Any solicitor will want those documents, probably in scanned form if you can. You should have a copy of the document you signed. Do you have such a copy? The terms of this contract and in particular what you were told by the salesman will be vital to the outcome.

Terrylw1

Jackiewood - contacting a solicitor is a very long winded way to go when there is a procedure in place to tackle complaints such as this. You should attempt to sort this with the Suppliers complaints team and if you get no joy you should head off to Energywatch who will take your case on for you.

These types of things are fairly common due to dodgy salesmen.

However, the point remains you signed a contract which you had the opportunity to read. So, it comes down to proving this.

If you go to a solicitor, it should be after going via Energywatch. Bare in mind Energywatch is free and you have no guarantee that you would win a case where you have viewed & signed the contract with a solicitor.

In my opinion, you have been duped in an underhanded way. Any contract can easily be backed out and you could go back to the previous Supplier under the erroneous transfer procedure.

You could always get free legal advice from the CAB or approach a local solicitor who will advise you on what he/she needs.

Your Supplier will have a copy if you can't find yours.